Hometown freshman key part of South Carolina volleyball’s latest NCAA appearance
South Carolina freshman volleyball player Victoria Harris knows all about overcoming obstacles and the hard work needed to be successful.
The 5-foot-4 freshman libero has been a winner at every step of her sports journey, and seeing the Gamecocks selected for the NCAA Tournament for just the 11th time in the program’s 51-year history seems apropos given her resume.
Harris won three state championships at Cardinal Newman in Columbia and has brought energy and a high level of play to the Gamecocks in one season.
She suffered from a torn ACL the summer before her senior season of high school and had surgery in October 2023. She enrolled at South Carolina for the spring 2024 semester. While she couldn’t physically participate, she became a proverbial sponge for everything she could learn.
“An ACL injury isn’t something you can take lightly. It’s a mental toll,” Harris said Monday, a day before the Gamecocks departed for the NCAA Tournament. “Everything we’re doing this season is what I worked for back in the summertime. I think that was the driving motivation for me.”
“Coming in early helped a lot. Being in the atmosphere, around the coaches and being around them every day and learning them and what South Carolina was as a volleyball program was super helpful.”
South Carolina coach Tom Mendoza agreed that time off the court helped the freshman come in and start every game and be named to the seven-woman SEC All-Freshman Team. Harris ranked sixth in the SEC in digs per set with 4.05. The 381 digs going into the postseason are the second-most by a Gamecock freshman in program history.
“It was huge for Victoria to come in early, especially given the injuries that she’s had,” Mendoza said. “She couldn’t play in any of the four scrimmages last semester, but she was here in person to see the level of play.
“Victoria deserved the All-Freshman team. One, to come in off her injuries, but two, to come in as a freshman and start every single match at the libero position, it takes a special person to do that. She’s a huge reason why we were successful through non-conference and into the SEC.”
Gamecocks open up vs. Dayton
South Carolina (16-11) is making its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance under Mendoza. The Gamecocks will travel to Waco, Texas and play No. 23 Dayton (29-2) in the first round at 5:30 pm Thursday (ESPN+). The winner of that matchup will face the winner of Wofford and host school Baylor in the second round.
Nine SEC teams made the postseason tournament, so South Carolina will be battle-tested after finishing 7-9 in league play. The Gamecocks earned two-regular season wins over the Florida Gators, ranked inside the Top 25 both times they faced USC.
“I don’t think there is anything at this point of the season that our team or players haven’t seen,” Mendoza said. “They’ve been playing against good players all year.”
South Carolina players agreed that playing in the SEC has prepared them for the postseason challenge.
“SEC volleyball is a very competitive conference,” said Alayna Johnson, a Kershaw native that prepped at North Central. “It’s a lot of teams that are always good, always playing at a high level. You have to be on your ‘A’ game every single point.”
Harris wasn’t the only player who received postseason honors from the SEC.
Graduate student Riley Whitesides, who is from Greenville and played at Mauldin, earned All-SEC First-Team honors after averaging 4.43 kills per set, which ranks inside the top 25 nationally. Whitesides is fifth in school history for most kills in a single season with 1,430. Whitesides has been responsible for 34% percent of the team’s total kills on the season.
She’s excited to finish off her USC playing career in the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s a really good way to go out,” Whitesides said. “I feel like we had great conference play (and) out-of-conference play, and I think we can continue that energy in the postseason and hopefully make a good run.”